Monthly Archives: February 2013

If you really love her (or him), let them know that what they are doing right now could be very dangerous.

Hat tip to Robert over at the Marmot’s Hole for spotting this gem in The Korea Times. According to the headline, “Cancer experts says no to oral sex, more green tea,” it would seem that Professor Shin Dong-moon, a Yonsei graduate now at Emory University, feels that getting to third base could be very, VERY dangerous to your health.

Here is the article pasted in its entirety so you can draw from it what you will. But allow me to quickly summarize:

Putting either cigarettes, alcohol or genitalia in your mouth can increase the chances of cancer and is thus highly dangerous.

We believe that oral sex is the cause of the rapid increase in head and neck cancer over the past 10 years. It is vital that anyone with symptoms receive vaccines against the human papillomavirus (HPV).”

Such was the statement from Prof Shin Dong-moon of Emory University who is a specialist in head and neck cancer.

There are over 100 varieties of HPVs and they are usually transmitted through sexual activities. There are high-risk contaminations which affects organs like the womb. Prof Shin, 62, said some 34 percent of women aged between 18 and 79 are infected with HPV, most of which is associated with a more open sex culture in the country.

The rate of infection is as high as 50 percent for those aged between 18 and 29 The situation is similar in countries like the United States.

“Throat cancer used to be a rarity over a decade ago but the increase in smoking and drinking has given rise to its incursion. There is every possibility that HPV will turn into a worldwide epidemic. ”

He went on to say that changes in sexual activities and dietary trends are essential for reining in such possibilities. A graduate of the Severance medical school of Yonsei University, Shin first joined MD Anderson hospital for cancer treatment and research before heading to Emory.

Duly noted. Though where is the part about green tea that the headline mentions?

I wonder if the Korea Times shelved this story until after Valentine’s Day?

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Dennis Rodman Arrives in North Korea. Is this a good time for the U.S. to send in the drones?

For what it’s worth, Dennis Rodman, also known as “The Worm” is visiting North Korea. Yeah. Dictator 3.0, Kim Jong-un, is apparently big on the NBA, and Rodman is probably the only guy nutty enough to pay his Royal Kimness a visit.

The 51-year-old former NBA standout, both on and off the court, arrived in Pyongyang on Tuesday with three Harlem Globetrotters in tow. Rodman, who will play some exhibition b-ball and run some workshops for kids, also visited the national museum where a Michael Jordan-signed basketball given to Kim Jong-il in 2000 by Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright is displayed among national treasures.

Rodnam is also taking part in a documentary being filmed there by Canadian-American journalist Shane Smith, who told reporters:

It’s weird because when you go there, it’s all very anti-American,” Smith said. “North Korean kids are fed anti-American propaganda from pretty much the day they are born. But it’s O.K. to like American basketball.

While people may rag on Rodman for this enormous publicity stunt dubbed, “basketball diplomacy,” I think it’s a good thing and certainly can’t make the U.S.-North Korean relationship any worse than it already is.

We got invited and we just came over to have some fun,” Rodman said. “Hopefully, everything will be O.K. and the kids will have a good time with the games.

Apparently, Rodman is not well versed in geography, much less diplomacy. This was made painfully apparent by his dispatch on Twitter:

Maybe I’ll run into the Gangnam Style dude while I’m here.

Weak Dennis, very weak.

And yet, for all his weirdness, geopolitical ignorance and bad hair, his intentions seem valid and worthy.

I’m not a politician. Kim Jung Un & North Korean people are basketball fans. I love everyone. Period. End of story.

Perhaps the best quote was when he was introduced to the General Secretary of the North Korean Basketball Association. Rodman extended his hand and said “Cool man, nice to meet you.”

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I hear tell that them folks over there in tha K-pop studios, that’s producin’ all them fine tunes, are gettin’ wise to tha fact that their, ohhh, what’s that word… genre, might be gettin’ a little on tha stale side. They’s a figurin’ that dog just won’t hunt forevuh.

So, looks like they done went and thunk on tryin’ supmtin’ new to give a little life to them tunes they makin’. Country K-pop!

Country music and K-Pop may seem like strange bedfellows right now, but musicians and producers are betting that this unlikely union could yield the next chart-busting hit. Meaning: we could start hearing American-music influences in one of the world’s most popular and dynamic pop genres.

I ain’t too crazy about them “bedfellows” they talkin’ ’bout, what with a lotta them fellah singers already lookin’ a little girly, but K-pop mixed with country? Hail yeah!

As fer that “American influence” they speakin’ of well, I didn’t even know that K-pop was a traditional Korean music. Now I love it even more. I’m callin’ mama right now!

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If you cherish your deceased loved ones, you might want to encase them in cement in Vietnam.

I am not one to kick the religious beliefs of others —hell, I once did a drunken rain dance in hopes of quitting smoking— but if your thing is ancestor worship, as it is in much of Asia, then you might want to be careful how you bury your loved ones in Vietnam.

Some people saw a small piece of paper sticking on the grave. They picked up the paper to read and all of them were appalled. “Your grandfather’s head is in our hands. If you want to get it back for reburial, you must redeem with VND50 million ($2,500). Preparing the money, we will call to tell you the place and time,” the piece of paper wrote. Some family members jumped into the grave in a hurry to check and they did not find the head.

Well, there you have it. Grave desecration and beheading for profit. It would seem that some Vietnamese are taking their recent transformation to capitalism to the fullest extent.

One more, is the deeply misogynistic, almost pedophilic label ‘bagel girl’ heavily promoted in the media, the “bay” referring to young, “baby” faces, and the “gul” referring to “glamour,” which means large breasts in Korean.

Problematic just for the blatant objectification alone, what is particularly worrisome is that the term is used only for young women, rather than middle-aged ones for whom looking youthful might be considered a plus. Pause to consider what charming individuals would be attracted to busty 18-year-olds with childlike faces, and it’s difficult not to conclude that it’s the combination of developed bodies and implied childlike personalities that is the real attraction.

And while the public may get caught up in the craze, it all starts, much as in the West, with a product to push.

Expectations surrounding women’s bodies—in the West and Asia—that endure to this day, are all manifestations of the same, utterly utilitarian, reductionist view of women upon which modern consumerism relies.

On a personal note: I have a pretty decent doughnut working around my waist, but I imagine there is little in the marketing schemes of the fashion industry aimed at “doughnut boys.” Though nothing a little Photoshop can’t remedy (or at least present something for me to aspire to).

A new scholarly analysis suggests that the more straight guys, especially those who are less educated, watch pornographic videos, the more they warm to same-sex marriage. The reason: Porn opens their mind up to accepting non-traditional sexual situations, like gay sex.

The study also speculated that girl-on-girl porn, was especially effective in helping crack the cro-magnon mentality, even in regards to being more accepting of male same-sex marriage.

The authors used studies of approximately 500 straight guys over the past six years that were funded by the National Science Foundation . Their findings were published in the Communication Research journal. They also speculate that the popularity of lesbian pornography helps warm the heterosexual men to the idea of same-sex marriage.

My only comment is this: I have supported same sex marriage as far back as I can remember. You can read into the correlation to porn consumption all you like. I just support it because it’s the right thing to do.

And if watching porn makes straight men more accepting of same-sex marriage, shouldn’t 99.9% be in support of the right to marry someone of the same gender?

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The Republic of Korea Air Force Media Contents Team and the Air Force Military Band have teamed up for a fun little parody of Les Miserables called Les Militaribles.

The 13-minute clip (with English subtitles) is quite clever, very well done and has done very well –garnering nearly 2 million hits since released last Tuesday. And, apparently, Russell Crowe has given it a nod of approval.

The video was directed by Lieutenant Chung Da-hoon, 25, a film student before being called to duty in the military. He told Reuters:

Snow removal is like a black hole. There’s no start and no end of it…We thought we could get sympathy from all Korean men and women who have brothers or sons. But we didn’t expect the response from overseas.

Most Korean media outlets running the story used the words “appear to be” in their coverage describing the photos, without taking a clear position on their authenticity.

And, while the Japanese government has, in typical fashion, downplayed the incident and the numbers involved, they have long acknowledged the tragic aftermath that occurred on September 1st, 1923 at the hands of its citizenry.

After the 7.9-magnitude earthquake wrecked Tokyo, Yokohama and other surrounding prefectures, Japanese vigilantes were reported to have murdered thousands of Koreans, whom they blamed for post-quake unrest.

Local Japanese citizens alleged that Koreans (part of a huge labor force brought to Japan during the occupation of Korea) poisoned wells and committed arson and robbery to take advantage of the disaster.

Alleged victims of Japanese massacre following the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake

According to Jeong, his release of the photos comes in response to an announcement by Japanese media late last month that education officials in Tokyo moved to replace the sentence in textbooks that read, “Many Koreans were massacred in the aftermath of the great earthquake,” with “Tombstones commemorating Korean victims of the Great Kanto Earthquake read, ‘Koreans lost their precious lives.'”

Officials felt the term “massacre” would create “misunderstanding.”

Jeong said the move by Japan to alter textbooks forced his hand:

It’s a shameful and humiliating moment in our history, but we have to protect spirits of some 6,000 Korean victims of the massacre. By presenting photos and other pieces of evidence, we must expose brutal acts committed by the Japanese in the past.

Piles of victims following the deadly quake

Noted Korean expat blog ROK Drop wrote: “I do not think is a “smoking gun” because there is no way to know if the bodies are in fact Koreans. They could just be dead civilians pulled from homes and piled up for survivors to look for their dead family members. That however doesn’t explain why their bottoms are exposed as they are laid out on display.”